Ghoulies Abroad by Julie Steimle (bts book recommendations txt) 📖

of the tires of all the other cars, Tom went out and ‘found’ another vehicle they could use. It belonged to one of the mob’s other cohorts—Tom explained to Andy as they dragged the thugs inside and shoved them in like fish in a sardine can when Andy had given him a sharp look. Tom offered to drive them. Chen took the wheel of the huali.

“What about the CIA?” Daniel asked Tom as Tom climbed into the driver’s seat.

Smirking back at Daniel, Tom patted him on the shoulder and said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ve already got it covered.”

They ended up following Chen through the city and not Tom. With a few touches on the faces of the triad thugs, Chen drew out of them the location of the actual boss’s home. Eddie had muttered, asking why Chen had not figured it out earlier, but Chen irritably snapped back that not all the thugs knew where their boss actually lived. The triad leader didn’t really trust most of his men, and their traveling party had been dealing with what could be described as expendable low-level thugs that entire time. Apparently even that boss did not trust the demons or the CIA enough to let them in that close to him.

“We only got lucky with one of them,” Chen explained with bite as he drove. “And honestly, it is really unpleasant digging into other people’s pasts.”

The group in the back seats listened intently. The only one not with them was Andy, who had opted to ride with Tom to make sure the thugs in his vehicle kept in line.

“Unpleasant, as in it physically hurts or in that—” Daniel started.

“Unpleasant in that I can see in my head all the evil things they have done.” Chen shuddered, gripping the steering wheel tighter. His eyes fixed on the traffic. “And I can feel their cold indifference to other human beings as they murdered, raped, and stole. I don’t like having nasty people in my head.”

Rick nodded, imagining having to deal with that.

“Ugh…” Semour grunted in the back. “Got it.”

“It is about as bad as having someone else’s fear and pain in your head,” Chen muttered.

“Sorry,” Daniel mumbled.

They looked to him, frowning. Chen sighed up front, not responding.

“Well, everybody’s got their own pain,” Rick murmured. “You remember that empath at school who could feel everyone’s feelings? At least you can keep your distance and not have to feel everyone’s past all the time. It took forever for her to shut it off.”

Chen shot him a side look. Rick was sitting behind the front passenger seat which was occupied by the monk. The monk had been pensively silent the entire time just listening to their conversation as they maneuvered through traffic, his brow wrinkled especially as Chen related his troubles.

“And Tom can’t shut out all those screaming imps he hears,” Rick continued. “Not even when he is sleeping.”

Frowning, Chen kept his eyes on the traffic.

“And you can’t get rid of your allergies,” Daniel called up.

Rick snorted. “Well, no. But that I can manage.”

The monk glanced back at him. “Is that your attitude on all this? You can manage?”

Chuckling, Rick nodded. “Yes”

With a sighing smirk, the monk nodded to himself.

“And why not?” Rick added, leaning forward toward him. “What other option do I have? Give up? Mope about it? I’ve only got this one life. I might as well make it work.”

“With the benefit of a fortune,” Chen murmured through tight lips.

Rick shot him a look. “A fortune my grandfather built from nothing. One which my father strives endlessly to maintain, and one I am responsible for. Chen, do you actually think money is a stable thing? That it just stays simply because I were born having it?”

Chen did not respond. His eyes were fixed on the cars ahead.

“But not all of us are born so lucky, I think is what he meant,” James interjected after an uncomfortable silence.

Shaking his head, closing his eyes, Rick muttered, “Born lucky… I was born lucky?

Daniel elbowed James in the side, shaking his head.

James merely shrugged. “I was just explaining…”

“We get it,” Eddie shot up. “The world sees Howie’s fortune and thinks he is lucky. We all did at one point.”

Looking back to him, Rick smirked. Of course that was true. Very few saw past his immense inheritance. It was a peculiar kind of greed which a very rare few acknowledged that they had—and even fewer admitted was wrong to harbor. The envy of the world was a painful burden and very few people in the world saw him as anything else but a rich kid. It made Rick think back to that vegan, Audry Bruchenhaus, who despite having similar views on most things (except veganism) always looked at him with a disdainful eye.

“Now we know better,” Eddie said.

The rest of the car ride was in silence. Most of them were in deep thought rather than feeling uncomfortable with the conversation. Each of them had something to sort through. The Seven were planning their entrance to the crime boss’s facility. It was already agreed that Tom would disarm the triad and destroy all their video surveillance equipment. Chen and the monk would hang back with Rick as the Seven would go in ahead and ‘handle the thugs’. Rick honestly hoped they would not kill the triad men. The Seven were already suggesting that Rick not even be seen.

“A hoodie and a hat,” Daniel whispered. “One of Tom’s.”

“What about us?” Eddie hissed.

“I think our earlier costumes will do.”

“Don’t have a costume,” Semour interjected.

“You can also dress up like Tom,” Daniel said. “As far as they know, you look enough like him. I don’t think the Chinese really can see the difference between one white guy with blonde hair and another.”

“That’s racist,” Eddie murmured from the back seat.

“In both ways, I guess, yeah.” Daniel chuckled at himself. “But it is still true.”

Eventually they arrived. The building was a fancy high rise downtown with a gated ramp for underground parking. Chen parked in an open spot on the curb, which to their eyes looked recently and suspiciously vacated. Either someone got out of there in a hurry, or Tom had found a way to forcibly have a car removed for them. They decided not to ask questions about it. Tom drove into the underground parking garage, allowing his license plate to gain him access when it was scanned.

“Alright,” Semour said, turning to the others then in most particular, Rick. “Howie, you should stay in the car.”

“To hide or as a getaway driver?” Rick asked dryly.

Their eyebrows raised, thinking on that last option. Daniel chuckled, murmuring, “Getaway driver…”

“Yes,” Semour said. “We realized this whole thing will cause you the most trouble, so you need to keep out of this mess.”

“A wolf is not needed,” James said flatly.

Sighing, Rick knew he was right. It wasn’t like he was raring to go into a triad stronghold anyway, but it was the first time he felt like he was being purposely discriminated against by his friends for being a werewolf—even if that wasn’t accurately true. They wanted to keep him from being attacked and there really was nothing he could do to help out.

“Chen,” Semour said to him, meeting his expectantly sullen gaze. “Keep Howie safe.”

They nodded to the monk, stepping out of the van.

The monk followed them, however. But moment the monk exited the van, he no longer looked like a monk at all, but like an average Chinese businessman. His suit and tie were impeccable. And he whipped out a pair of sunglasses, putting them on his face.

“I guess he’s leaving us too,” Chen murmured when they shut the huali van door.

Rick patted Chen on the shoulder, nodding. “The monk is here to help them.”

 

The wait was dull.

They heard no bangs.

No booms.

No shouts.

Nothing.

Rick and Chen were playing cards while they sat on the empty floor of the van when someone came up and tapped on the glass. Chen looked up at the window. He saw an old man standing there and peering in while rattling off something in local lingo. Chen could hardly understand him at first due to his accent. But then he figured out that they needed to pay for the parking spot. The man had a fistful of ten yuan bills.

Rick fished out money from his pocket.

As Chen rolled down the window to pay the man, Rick breathed in the man’s strong musk… or rather the distinct odor of something not so human. Rick lifted his eyes quickly toward the pretended parking attendant, then grabbed Chen, yanking him back by the seat of his pants. “No!”

Several things happened at once.

Glass burst out from the upper floor above. Someone screaming fell toward the ground with a heavy thump to the tiled walkway. The old man reached into the car with claws. People on the street screamed and police ran up to the fallen man. Rick turned wolf while Chen shouted, Rick biting the arm that had reached into the window. Then time itself seemed to slow down.

Chen took dog form and leapt on the pretended attendant who was getting unusually nastier and nastier in his appearance. Both fell out the car window onto the asphalt in between cars. Rick retracted back into human form and slid the wide door aside, staggering out. As Chen-the-dog battled it out with a demon, Rick backed away toward the commotion on the street. Getting into the crowd, he came closer to the center of the mess and looked over at the fallen man. Recognizing him, he paled.

It was Eddie.

Rick shouted, rushing up to him. “No! Eddie! No!”

Eddie was bleeding, especially at the back of his head. And his eyes were closed.

“No!” Rick screamed. He grabbed Eddie, trying anything to wake him. And then—Eddie was gone. So was the blood. Literally evaporated, like cloud of… Eddie. Even the blood on Rick’s hands vanished. And floating the air before him where the Eddie cloud had been was a reddish hair. Rick stared at it, blinking out salty water from his vision.

Stomping to his feet, Rick shouted to the air, “You bloody monkey! Don’t do that to me!”

“Sorry!” a voice called down from the open window. Hardly anyone in the crowd understood it, though all of them including the two police officers on the beat were flabbergasted over the abrupt disappearance of the foreigner who had just fallen to his death from the building.

Chen-the-dog chased the man/demon through the walkway just then, plowing past on fast paws as his teeth dug into the rear of the monster. The police on the scene lurched back in horror. Passersby screamed, scrambling away. Rick stared after Chen and his prey, staggering out of the way.

The battle above also continued with noise. Shouts which Rick could not comprehend (as they were in Mandarin he did not know) now resonated out the gaping hole in the building. An office chair fell next.

Rick and everyone else quickly got out of the way. It clattered with a plastic-shattering, metal-bending thump on the hard brick walkway.

Another shriek came from behind. Chen the dog was now walking away from the dead demon, blood on his maw. The police drew their guns.

“Snake!” Rick shouted, pointing into the crowd, hoping Chen got the suggestion he ought to change shape fast.

Chen shrank into a snake and quickly zipped out, going under the cars nearby.

Nearly everybody nearby was screaming now—including the police. It was a good sign, Rick decided, as it was proof they were human.

“Rick! Get back in the car!” Chen called to him from the driver’s side window.

Nodding, Rick dashed back to the van, sliding around the huali front to the passenger’s side. Chen started the engine.

“I think they are going to make a bolder exit,” Chen said, handing over Rick’s cell phone which they had been using for GPS while Chen had been driving. On it was a text message from Andy.

 

Meet us at the Yongning Temple. Swift just made a snap decision and you don’t want to be here